Citation

Reif, Karlheinz, and Melich, Anna. Euro-barometer 38.1: Consumer Protection and Perceptions of Science and Technology, November 1992. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2015-04-27. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06045.v2

Summary

This round of Euro-barometer surveys queried respondents on
standard Euro-barometer measures such as public awareness of and
attitudes toward the Common Market and the European Community (EC), and
also focused on the role that consumer, science, and entertainment
issues play in the lives of residents of the European Community.
Respondents were asked to describe their television viewing habits and
to comment on whether they watched programs broadcast by satellite.
Their interest in a 24-hour European news channel and their receptivity
to purchasing and using HDTV (high definition television) technology
were also probed. In addition, participants in this Euro-barometer were
asked a series of questions on consumer protection issues. They
reported on topics such as recent European Community initiatives on
product safety, labeling, and consumer credit, the problems they
experienced as consumers over the last 12 months, what action they took
if they wished to lodge a formal complaint, where they would turn for
information on purchasing/selling products directly, their opinion
regarding the uniformity of consumer protection policies across the
Community, their level of satisfaction with current practices on the
packaging and labeling of foodstuffs, and their knowledge of
preservatives, additives, and colorings used in food products.
Respondents also described their recent travel experiences, their use
of products and services while traveling, and their opinions regarding
the level of safety of these products and services as compared to those
found in their own countries. Other questions focused on recent issues
in the news of interest to respondents and which professions they
respected the most. A final battery of questions probed attitudes
toward science and technology issues: how informed respondents were in
general, the sources of their information, recent visits to zoos,
museums, and cultural institutions, opinions as to which subjects were
"scientific" and which were not, and knowledge of scientific methods
of investigation and the importance of science and technology in their
lives. Finally, they were asked about the role the European Community
plays in scientific research and how effective Community countries were
in the promotion of science and technologies as compared with Japan and
the United States. As in previous Euro-Barometers, information was
gathered on family income, number of people residing in the home, size
of locality, region of residence, occupation of the head of household,
and the respondent's age, sex, education, religion, subject social
class standing, socio-professional status, and left-right political
self-placement.

Citation

Reif, Karlheinz, and Melich, Anna. Euro-barometer 38.1: Consumer Protection and Perceptions of Science and Technology, November 1992. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2015-04-27. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06045.v2

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Time Period(s)

1992-11-03 -- 1992-11-29

Date of Collection

1992-11-03 -- 1992-11-29

Data Collection Notes

Data processing for this collection was performed at
GESIS.

Access to GESIS data and documentation, including the GESIS DOI, for Eurobarometer 38.1 can be found through the GESIS Data Catalogue. Additional information on the Eurobarometer Survey Series and the Eurobarometer data can be found at the GESIS Eurobarometer Web site and ZACAT, respectively.

Sample

Multistage national probability samples.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Persons aged 15 and over residing in the 12 member nations
of the European Community: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece,
Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the
United Kingdom.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Source

personal interviews

Data Type(s)

survey data

Mode of Data Collection

Original Release Date

1995-03-16

Version Date

2015-04-27

Version History

1995-03-16 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

2015-04-27 The SPSS setup files were updated to conform to current standards. SAS and Stata setup files, as well as SPSS and Stata system files, a SAS transport (CPORT) file, a R data file, a tab-delimited data file, and a PDF codebook have been added to the collection.